Doncaster RLFC: Kyle Kesik refuses to write off automatic promotion hopes

Dons hooker Kyle Kesik still hopes to celebrate his well-earned testimonial by helping the Betfred League One club secure promotion to the Championship.
Kyle KesikKyle Kesik
Kyle Kesik

But Saturday’s 22-6 defeat against joint-leaders London Skolars didn’t help in that respect and with other results going against them they find themselves outside the five play-offs up for grabs.

On paper the Dons couldn’t have picked a better team to play this weekend, as they look to end a three-match losing sequence in the league, than West Wales Raiders.

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Raiders, who were without a game last weekend, have already been on the wrong end of a heavy defeat at the Keepmoat Stadium at the start of the month in the 1895 Cup and have yet to win in any competition this season.

“Obviously it’s a game that we’ve got to be looking to win and hopefully we will play better than on that day even though we won 70-6,” said Kesik.

“We won easily in the end but the 24-6 interval score line probably flattered us that day and we weren’t as good as we wanted to be.

“Possibly some players had an eye on the Challenge Cup tie at Catalans Dragons the following week. It’s also easy to take your eye off the ball in a game you are expected to win

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“To be fair to West Wales they looked a better side than last year when they conceded over 100 points on several occasions - including against us - and they never gave up trying and I expect that will be the case on Sunday.

“It’s a league game and we both need to win and to boost our points difference because with it being so tight around us it could all come down to that in September and we’ve got to be fired up from the start

“If we can go on a run and, say, win our next five or six league games then we’d find ourselves up there because when it comes to the fancied teams everyone is beating everyone else.

“Despite our record to date we’ve still got a good team when everyone is fit and I’d be disappointed if we didn’t finish in the play-offs.

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“Admittedly we’ve given ourselves a lot to do but I’ve still not written off our hopes of the automatic promotion spot.

“I’m fed up with being in this league but it doesn’t getting any easier trying to get out of it.”